The Chronicles of the NEXO Knights
by TRikiD
Summary: Darkness is beginning to reign over the Kingdom of Knighton when royal jester Jestro and legendary NEXO Knight Angel look to the dark side and follow The Book of Monsters. With the book, they start to create monsters to destroy and take over all of the land. So now, it is the time for a band of graduate knights to gear up and end this reign of darkness.
1. Chapter 1 - Evil is on the Rise

**Alright, I am so happy to be writing this story, guys! And I'm the first author to post a NEXO Knights fanfiction in this archive, then I would be so honored because I've looked, and from what I've seen, I heaven't found any NEXO Knights on THIS sight! So I hope you enjoy chapter one!**

* * *

The Chronicles of the NEXO Knights

Chapter 1 – Evil Is On The Rise

BOOM

Dust filled the night air, making whomever was causing the destruction practically invisible, but was visible was what seemed like wizard attire and a staff with a glowing orb crest at the top. And there were also maniacal laughs, as small black orbs with jagged smiles and buggy eyes bounced out of the smoke.

CRASH

The person of destruction was angrily mumbling to himself as even more spherical monsters leapt out from his work.

THUD

Soon, the wall he was hitting finally broke, and he walked into a huge and dark room that was dimly lit as the moonlight seeped through, and where a certain desk he had his eyes on sat in the center…and he was here because there was something on the desk that he needed.

As he approached the desk, he chuckled darkly as he found what he needed: a still hologram of a young brunette man in his late teens with blue eyes, clad in silver, shimmering armor. So the shadowy figure picked up the still hologram of the smiling man.

"Today's the day, Clay Moorington," the old man laughed to himself.

* * *

Today was a very special day that every citizen in the kingdom was willing to celebrate.

"The entire Kingdom of Knighton is on the edge of their seat with excitement, Alice!" Herv, a middle-aged man with sleek, dark brown said with a smile as he and his she-robot co-announcer Alice, a four and half foot tall robot with a huge smile, blonde hair made of metal and mostly bright pink and metal attire, announced as the man and the robot sat in the room being broad cast on live television, and their room over looked a huge arena filled with hundreds of medieval-time humans and robots alike were sitting in and continued to fill the stadium.

"Yes indeed, Herv! A buzz, one might even say!" Alice laughed.

"Tonight's news network is proud to present to you the one-hundred and fifty-first Knight's Academy graduation celebration! And not only that, but we have three very important celebrity guests here us today! We have our beloved King and Queen Halbert!" Herv proudly announced as the live broad casting camera panned across the arena and up to the special box where three seat were aligned; King Halbert, a big and buff man who was probably in his early fifties with a huge, light brown beard and light green eyes, and his Queen Halbert, a late-forties, fit woman who wore a blue dress, had dark brown hair tied back in a tight bun and her blue eyes sparkled like the sea. And the royal couple took the biggest seats that looked more like thrones, and the last seat of honor wasn't exactly as fancy.

"And last, but not least, legendary NEXO Knight Angel!" with Herv's announcement, a human-shaped figure with golden angel wings flew in through the top of the arena and flew all around the stadium, maybe just to show off. But she soon descended and landed in the box with the king and queen, and she removed her silver helmet afterwards.

Angel was a beautiful, early-twenties woman with long, wavy, light brown hair, bright brown eyes and she was tall and fit, which were the two most important requirements for being a NEXO Knight.

Angel was known as the youngest NEXO Knight of the latest generation of knights who turned out to be the top of her class. And her victories of her years of such a fighter was always proven when you looked upon the faint scar over her left eye. She claimed she got it while defending the king and the queen from a viscous monster, and it is true because the king and queen were there. But everyone knows she's the best of the best because of her indestructible, golden angel wings; some have heard rumors of her father being an angel, and her mother a mortal, but it is still a mystery.

The crowd went wild over Angel's arrival as she waved her hair a little after taking her helmet off, and she waved with the king and queen to the citizens.

"They are here to begin the tournament, and to judge if the graduates are truly knight material!" Herv pointed out.

"That's right, Herv! And don't Angel's wings just look so radiant? She must have hired the best stylist in the kingdom the groom her wings for today; oh, what I would give just to groom those heavenly wings myself!" Alice added as the camera panned back to them, and five still holograms of five different people appeared.

"There are five knights possibly graduating today! But do I see any purpose in this? Not really? The realm hasn't been touched by monsters for years, mostly thanks to Angel!"

"Agreed, Herv! I just feel it in my circuits that's it's going to be an amazing show; for we're also featuring Murlock the king's wizard and adviser, and Jestro the royal jester! But I speak for everyone today when I ask: Will Princess Macey Halbert's parents let her become a knight with the rest of her class, and face the dangers out there?"

"Well now, Alice, she was the second best in her class!"

"Even so, Herv, I'm pretty sure her father King Halbert would prefer to see his fragile daughter in a lovely dress over a suit of armor!"

"A princess, yes. Fragile, not so much, Alice. Never tell Macey that's she's some fragile flower!"

Speaking of Macey, Herv was right to call her 'not-fragile' because she had a gap in her front teeth that proved that she was probably rough and not very careful in her younger years. But despite being a tomboy, the late-teens woman kept her dark red hair beautiful and tied back in a pony-tail like most female athletes, and her emerald eyes were sparkling too. She was a knight clad in silver armor with red coloration and an intimidating, red dragon as her symbol.

Right now, Macey was in the special guest box arguing with her dad.

"Dad, you promised that I could be a knight!"

"I-I, know…but Princess, I just don't want you getting hurt out there, is all," her protective king of a father protested.

"I wanna be a knight, Dad. And you and I both know that's what just I'm meant to be. Mom, tell him!" Macey whined as she looked towards her queen mother for back-up.

"You did promise her, Dear," Queen Halbert softly pointed out.

"If she were my daughter, I'd let her go out there. You should really give her the chance to show you, Your Highness," Angel said with a smile as she joined the conversation.

"If a legend like Angel can believe in me, can't you to, Dad? Pleeeeeaaaaase?" Macey whined while giving her father puppy eyes, but King Halbert still wasn't quite sure at first.

"Oh…oh, alright," King Halbert sighed as Macey left while whisper/shouting a 'yes' and left, "but you had better not come back with anymore scars, young lady!"

* * *

The camera switched back to Herv and Alice, as it was now time to introduce the graduates.

"Herv and co-announcer Alice are here to introduce you all to the next possible generation of knights!" Herv began as another hologram was switched on outside in the arena to present the graduates of their pre-recorded presentations.

"Top knight of the class is Clay Moorington!" Alice shouted as Clay Moorington, the same man from the picture in the beginning, was presented; he wore silver armor with dark blue coloration, a white and blue eagle as his symbol and a large sword at its finest as his weapon of choice.

"Can't wait to see what this country boy has in store!" Alice added with anticipation.

Next knight to come up on the board was a man who seemed to be a year or two older than Clay or Macey, had a mop of platinum blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a perfect smile. He was wearing silver armor with white coloration, a white horse with a horn as his symbol and a huge lance as his weapon of choice.

"This fashionable man is the Lucky Lance!"

"Who doesn't want to be him? He's gorgeous!" Herv had to add, "now, next on our list is the thrill-seeker Aaron!"

"He's got mad skills, as the kids say!" Alice added.

The next student was actually a year younger than Clay; with shaggy, dirty blonde hair, green eyes, had a little facial hair on his chin and possibly in need of braces more than Macey. He wore silver armor with bright green coloration, and yellow fox as his symbol and his weapon of choice was a metal cross-bow. Unlike the other students, his presentation was him flying through on a high-tech hover board; Aaron has a history with hover-boards.

"Hoo-hay, it's the big, the bad Axl!" Herv suddenly shouted as the next knight was presented.

"And with his big, bad axe!"

This next knight seemed to have his upper-body and muscles on steroids, but it wasn't true, and he managed to keep himself up on his nimble legs anyway. Axl had a black mo-hawk, he wore silver armor with dark purple coloration, a light purple bull as his symbol, and his weapon was obviously a giant metal axe.

"But we also have the amazing Macey joining in!"

"Oh, I never doubted it, Herv!"

"But…you just did…just a minute ago."

We've already met Macey, but her presentation was of her with…well, a giant mace as her weapon.

"Stay tuned, folks! 'Cause we'll be comin' back to start the tournament very, very soon!" Herv announced with a smile and a wink.

* * *

Inside the arena's garage, where the knights and some of the robots acting as targets waited to be called out, Jestro was practicing his juggling…and failing, as per usual…and freshmen knights Robin and Ava were helping to set up target dummies for the show.

Robin was a freshman with a mop of dirty blonde hair and brown eyes; he was a knight wearing silver armor with light blue coloration and a white…chicken as his symbol. Literally, a chicken.

Ava was also a freshman, but it was hard to tell if she was also a knight when she hardly ore any armor. Ava wore mostly dark purple attire, she had green eyes and short, dark brown hair.

"Oh, how I wish I could already be out there, graduating with the rest of the senior knights," Robin said with awe while dreaming.

"We're only freshmen, Robin. You should know just as well as I that we've got a few years to go. At least we got to help with the dummies—target dummies. No offense, guys," Ava said as she remembered the robots participating as the dummies for the knights. But they didn't seem offended.

"Don't worry about it; we volunteered for this," one of the robots reassured with a huge smile of metal teeth.

"Yeah, it's an honor to be dummies for the graduates," another robot happily added.

The robots were true to their word; they weren't scared to load into a slug-buddy with three of them in at a time. They pressed a button and accidentally activated one of the larger fighter robots. They tired out one of Lance's hovering metal horses, but it flew out of control and crashed.

"Don't give up! We've got a show to out on, everybody!" Robin called out.

* * *

Inside the fancier, more luxurious parts of the garage, the knights were getting ready for the show. And the one who was really getting ready was Lance as the man was being pampered by a couple of robots as they served him drinks and he was kicked back in a soft chair. But being the top in his class, Clay thought this wasn't the way to get ready.

"Lance, it's important that we make a good first impression," Clay said firmly as he marched up to the lazy knight.

"Relax wonder-knight. We're gonna win any other way," Lance calmly protested with a smirk, "besides, I always make a good impression just by being me. Now, would you like some sparkling water?"

But Clay only sighed in refusing Lance's offer of the drink, so he went off to go find the other knights. He soon found them near a stage, and Axl was swinging his feet off the edge.

"Oh…you nervous, Axl?" Macey whimpered.

"Nope. I'm hungry," Axl replied in his deep, guttural voice.

"You're always hungry, Dude," Aaron chuckled.

"But you're about to become an official knight of the realm? Don't you think that maybe the realm is a little more important that whether or not you stomach is full?" Clay questioned as he walked up and cut into the conversation.

"Hmmm…only if it gets me another slice of cake," Axl hummed while thinking hard.

But suddenly, the sound of a horn affair was sounded outside, and the knights knew what it was for.

"That's our cue! Time for a bow-datious battle!" Aaron said with confidence, thinking he could pull off the pun and he strummed the tight string of his cross-bow like an air guitar and even making guitar noises with his mouth.

Meanwhile, the target robots were getting into position in the arena outside as Clay was also stepping out, and he slipped on his thick helmet and pulled out his sword.

"Up first is the super knight Clay Moorington!" Herv called out as the crowd cheered for Clay's entrance into the arena.

Clay wasted no time in sprinting through the course and striking each holographic, red target that hovered above each robot.

"Murlock has really made Clay into the awesome knight he is now, huh Herv?"

"Very true, Alice, very true! The friendship between that old wizard and that young knight sure paid off during training!"

But that was when another knight came out into the arena once Clay's performance was over.

"Ooh look, it's Aaron!" Herv shouted so loud, it got the crowd riled up again as Aaron came flying out on his hover-board with his cross-bow.

"Yes! He's the air-born archer! He is 'off the hook'!" Alice added with a giggle.

Aaron proved Alice's point as he flew fast and shot glowing laser-arrows at each of his targets. Once he was also finished, his went and waited in the center of the arena with Clay.

Next was Lance as he came riding out on his hovering vehicle that was designed specifically to look like his symbol: a horse with a large horn. And with each cheer Lance was greeted by, the pampered boy blew kisses to his adoring fans.

"Lance is always so pumped, despite being pampered!" Herv pointed out.

"Oh yes, he is certainly the most magnificent man I've ever seen!" Alice added while fan-girling over Lance.

Now that it was Lance's turn, all he had to do was knock his robot opponent off his hovering machine, and both were equipped with lances. So the two started to speed up while circling each other around the outer edges of the arena. But Lance wasn't paying attention when he accidentally lowered he lance too far, and he was literally poll-vaulted high into the air.

Lance screamed out of terror as he flew through the air, but little did he know it was luck because the accident made Lance luckily end up landing on his opponent's hover vehicles, and thus knocking him off and winning.

Once it was a victory, Lance walked up to Clay and Aaron while nervously scratching the back of his head.

"I-I meant to do that," Lance clearly lied, making Clay roll his eyes.

"And here's Axl, who's always hungry for action, if you will!" Alice announced as Axl came stomping out with his axe over his shoulder. His target was the slug-buddy full of robots.

But the big guy knew he wouldn't have a problem as he lifted his axe high over his head, and then threw it back down to the ground with a smash, causing the robots to fall out of the slug-buddy and even the blade of his weapon was deeply impaled into the stone ground, yet he was able to pull it back out with ease.

"Ya may want to make way for Princess Macey, Axl, 'cause here she comes!" Herv warned with a joking tone as Macey came running out, ready to go with her mace at hand.

"I'm sure she'll put quite the womanly touch on this battle!" Alice added.

Macey's challenge was to take down a giant fighter robot, and she easily stunned it at first when she dodged its first attempt to hit her, and she kicked robot back. When the robot retaliated and the two started running towards each other at full speed, Macey swung her mace hundreds of times to build up momentum. And when she through her mace, it took down the robot by taking its head clean off.

"There's that touch now, Alice!" Herv pointed out as it was not a win for Macey.

"Wow! That was just a-mace-ing!" Alice tried to pull of the pun, but Herv wasn't laughing.

But now, it was time for the king, the queen and the legendary knight to dub who is knight material as the graduates each stepped onto a platform that raised them all up to the box where the celebrity guests waited for them.

"And now folks, it's time for that moment that every knight has ever dreamed of: the shield presentation!" Alice announced as the royal couple and the angel-winged knight were greeted by the eager and hopeful graduates.

"Fair citizens of this realm, we welcome these new knights with these shields to symbolize their righteous achievements, and what achievements they shall make in the future! Each shield holds the symbol of their family crests!" Angel called out to the cheering people and robots. And each knight smiled at this.

With that, four she-robots with shields came out into the box with a shield clasped in their metal hands…but there was only four, and Macey saw that not one of them looked like hers'.

"Uh-oh! This doesn't look good for Macey, Alice! I don't see a shield with her crest on it!" Herv pointed out with worry.

"Oh, now that's gotta sting!" Alice jokingly added.

Each of the boy knights received their respective shields, but Macey had a bone to pick with her father.

"Dad, you said I'd become a knight!" Macey growled.

"Uh, w-we'll discuss this later, Pumpkin," King Halbert protested in a hushed voice, only making Macey grunt in rage in louder.

But now, each knight that did have their shield left it up so that it was activated and so the people could see them, but Aaron wasn't holding his up, he was riding his shield as a, you guessed it, a hover-board.

"I'd say this thing makes a MUCH better hover-board than all my other ones!" Aaron said with a grin as he flew around a little for fun.

"That's completely disrespectful, Aaron, and you know it," Clay informed that care-free knight, only for Lance to give him a nice little konk on the head with his lance.

"Lighten up, eh uber-knights? It's a party, so enjoy it!" Lance pointed out with a grin as he referred to the cheering crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the graduates of the Knight's Aca-!" the king was beginning to announce, but he was rudely interrupted by a loud roar that came from the arena's entrance, and not only that, but fire and smoke flashed through the entrance and into the arena. The people were beginning to get very terrified.

What came through the smoke and fire was even more terrifying; there were three huge monsters made from scorching volcano magma.

"M-monsters?!" Herv quivered with fear.

"This doesn't make much since; there haven't been monsters here in the city for over one hundred years!" Alice stated as Herv jumped out of his seat and into Alice's arms out of fear.

Meanwhile, the knights outside readied themselves as this was to be their first, real battle. Even Angel spread her wings and lifted up into the air to help them.

"Macey, hurry, take this!" Queen Halbert called to her daughter as she grabbed out none other than the shield Macey was supposed to get earlier. And when Macey caught it and it activated to her touch, she couldn't be more confident to go into battle.

The five graduates and the knight legend jumped down and back into the arena with the dangerous monsters and ran up to them.

"Oh, how amazing! A real, live fight against monsters! I think our viewer ratings just went up!" Alice said with excitement while poor Herv was now hiding behind his chair and shaking even more.

But as the fight was progressing, the knights found out that each time they tried to hit the monsters, they just couldn't, as if they were intangible…like a hologram.

But their and fear confusion was short-lived when the monsters all exploded into a million sparks, and appearing behind them was Murlock as the old wizard was giggling.

"Oh, thank goodness, it was just Murlock," Lance sighed with relief.

"Good show, old friend. You truly are the greatest magician in this land!" King Halbert called down to his wizard adviser.

"I'm also the ONLY magician of my kind in the land," Murlock added sadly under his breath, but he soon perked up, "knight graduates, you must all realize that there is still very much for you to learn."

"He ain't kiddin'," Angel added with a smirk as she landed next to Murlock and folded her wings closed.

"But now, it's time for some magic!" Murlock announced, making the crowd start to cheer again, as he waved his staff around and its tip glowed. Soon, he pointed the end of his staff at the graduated knights, and they disappeared with a burst of a large, orange cloud of sparkling dust.

"Wow, Murlock made the knights disappear in front of our very eyes!" Alice shouted with glee, and Herv was now brave enough to come out of hiding and sit back in his chair.

As a center platform out in the arena started to rise up, Murlock waved his staff again, and the knights reappeared from thin air.

"And then he made them reappear!" Alice went on.

But as everyone was happy for Murlock, Jestro only got worried. He knew he'd never match up to Murlock's magnificence…but the ting that worried him most was Angel. He's always had a crush on her for as long as he could remember. And the last thing the royal jester would want is to look like a fool and for the angel to laugh at him.

* * *

A few hours later, as the sun was starting to set a little and the knights headed back inside to hang out with Angel before Jestro's part of the show, poor Jestro was still worried about going on. But Clay was his best friend, so he knew he had to reassure the poor clown.

Jestro was an early to mid-twenties man that was dressed in a bright blue and purple clown costume, his face was covered with white clown make-up and he had sparkling blue eyes that always seemed to be full of paranoia and worry.

"Look, I know it's almost your time to go out there and you're nervous, but you shouldn't worry so much, Buddy."

"Oh, I just can't help it, Clay. 'Never follow a better act' they say. A-and everyone loves Murlock," Jestro pointed out with nothing but worry in his tone.

"'Love' is such a strong word; I'd say 'adore' maybe 'cherish'," Lance joked as he did not really help when he joined in.

"C'mon, Jestro—I hear Angel will be watching your act," Clay whispered with a smirk, and just as they heard Angel say she was leaving to watch the show and she flew out. And that was enough to perk the royal fool up.

"R-really? A-Angel wants to watch ME? Well, ok then! On with the show!" Jestro said with a little bit of confidence as the doors opened for him to walk out, and he held his hands together nervously as he was greeted by hundreds of cheering fans…not his fans, of course.

"He's gonna crash and burn on front of his crush, isn't he?" Lance asked dryly.

"I'm—afraid so," Clay sighed doubtfully.

* * *

"And now introducing Jestro the royal fool!" Herv announced as Jestro continued to nervously glance around at the people and robots in search of entertainment.

So Jestro started his act by trying to do some cart-wheel and front flips across the arena, but he lost his balance and fell flat on his back.

Part of the crowd gasped while the rest of it laughed, humiliating Jestro as he slowly stood back up.

"C'mon, you can do this, you can do this. Be funny," Jestro motivated himself under his breath, but then he lifted his head to look at the crowd, "he people, it's great ta be here…I'm always here…I live here even!"

That was not bringing out the kind of humor that Jestro expected, especially as once again, people were giving him pity laughter. So Jestro went on to his next acts.

His second act was spinning plates on sticks…but he didn't do so well, and the plates fell and shattered one by one. So he tried his third act which was balancing on a plank of wood while that plank rested atop a log…but he lost his balance and soon fell again.

Now, it was getting really bad as the people were starting to boo him and just shake their heads with shame and disappointment.

So Jestro went to try his third act which was yanking a table cloth off a table while the rest of the food and centerpieces stayed on…but he failed once again as everything flew up into the air when he yanked on the cloth. He even ended up having the chicken splat in his face, making matters even worse for him.

"Try the juggling, Jestro! Everyone loves juggling!" the king called out to his royal fool of a friend as the crowd was booing even louder.

Jestro quickly took the king's advice and grabbed three weapons: a mace, a lance and a sword. He then started to juggle them while going 'da-da-da' in a sing-song voice to make it more humorous.

Meanwhile, the other knights were watching from inside on a holographic T.V. as poor Jestro was epically failing.

"Does he know that he's juggling a power mace?" Macey questioned with concern.

"Why? Does it make any difference?" Lance asked with confusion.

"It could…" Macey replied as she feared the worse that could happen to Jestro.

"C'mon, buddy," Clay silently cheered for his clown friend.

But Jestro kept trying, and he was juggling perfectly fine…except for the fact that Macey was right when she said he was literally juggling a power mace. So the said weapon started to activate on its own, and it harshly shocked Jestro; the royal jester then freaked out and threw the electrical mace out of fear. But that was a big mistake.

The mace was thrown all the way across the arena, and it hit none other than the main power-grid. And just like Christmas lights, if one grid goes out, so did all of the others. So the entire kingdom literally went dark as the electricity went out.

"Whoa Alice, a HUGE fail for Jestro!" Herv announced.

"I've heard of shock humor, but this is ridiculous!" Alice couldn't help but add.

And now, poor Jestro was trying to sprint back inside as fast as he could as the booing was as loud as ever now.

But just as the door opened, Clay and Murlock came out, and Jestro and Clay accidentally collided with each other.

"Oh, I can't do anything right! I'm nothing but a failure!" Jestro cried as his eyes even started to fill up with tears.

"C'mon, I highly doubt ANYONE even thinks that," Clay reassured as he helped himself and Jestro back up.

"YOU'RE A HORRIBLE FAILURE THAT CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!" a robot civilian angrily called from the seats. And that did it for Jestro as the jester sobbed while running off.

But little did Jestro know that the one person who felt very sorry for him, even more sorry than Clay, was Angel. And she just couldn't let him go off alone like that, so she opened her wings and flew off in pursuit of him.

But no one paid attention to the angel's escape from the stadium, as they were now shrouded in darkness since Jestro knocked all of the power out. So it was time for their king and queen to reassure their subjects.

"Do not worry, my people! Darkness may have fallen across the kingdom-!" But that was a bad choice of words as the crowd gasped with fear when they heard 'darkness had fallen'.

"No, no! I don't mean dark as in evil! There's no soul-taking evil!" King Halbert tried to rephrase, but it didn't really help, so everyone started to run and scream in terror as they fled the stadium.

"I don't think you're helping much, Dear," Queen Halbert sighed to her husband.

* * *

Jestro had run away to go and hide in the king's castle, as he had now stopped crying and he was walking alone in the large and dark halls. But Jestro wasn't going to be alone for long.

"Jestro, wait!"

Jestro knew that voice, but he never thought the owner of that voice would be looking for him. And he was proven wrong when he saw none other than Angel flying in through one of the large windows, and she landed in front of him.

"A-Angel? W-what are you doing here…Y-Your Knightness?" Jestro shuddered in the presence of his crush.

"My job as a knight is to help those in need, whether it's physically or mentally."

"But why would a legend like you ever want to help a low-life jester like me?"

"It's just my job, and I'm not that kind of person; I don't take my job for granted. That, and I'd never laugh AT you like some of those other awful people out there—I'll always laugh WITH you, Jestro," Angel explained kindly with a sweet smile, and it even made Jestro smile back at her.

"That may be so, Sweetheart, but I think he'd make a better villain than a jester, and so would you!" Both Angel and Jestro flinched when they heard a sudden and new voice echo throughout the halls.

"You heard that, right?" Angel questioned quietly.

"A-are…are you talking to us?" Jestro called out.

"Do you see anyone else around?!" the voice asked angrily. So they both looked around, and he was right, there was no one but them to be seen.

"I can assure you both that you're NOT goin' crazy; you're NOT insane, and you're minds are NOT playin' tricks on ya either! I am real, so I want you to come find me; I'm in Murlock's library!" With that, the two just agreed to follow the voice's instructions to head for the old wizard's library.

Soon, they came up to the massive doors, and pushed them open with ease as they entered the huge library.

"That's odd. These doors are always locked," Angel said with confusion.

"Yeah, well your boyfriend's little power-outage took care of that problem!" the voice chuckled darkly, and that surprised the angel Halfling and the jester both.

"Hey, he is NOT my boyfriend…but he is my friend!" Angel called out angrily.

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say! Now, just keep walkin' forward; I'm in this giant, golden beam of light, ya see?"

The two looked around, and the only golden beam of light the voice described was in the very back between two tall shelves of books. So they headed up to the beam, where they found nothing but an old and thick book with a leather cover.

Jestro and Angel shared confused glances before Jestro shrugged and decided to pick up the open book. But when he closed it, he was greeted with a monstrous face.

"AAAAHHH!" Jestro screamed, but Angel managed to keep her cool better than him as she stared at the book with a face in wonder.

"Oh, I love doin' that," the book laughed.

"Wait…YOU'RE the one that was talking to us? But you're just a book," Jestro pointed out.

"Hey, I'm not just any book, I'm THEE book. The Book of Monsters. And I think you two would make the perfect baddies as long as you help me," the Book of Monsters began angrily.

"But…but she's a knight, and I'm just a jester!"

"Despite those facts, clown boy—I know her. Even being part angel, she's still part mortal, so she's still very capable of darkness—I sense she even thirsts for evil," the book said darkly with an evil grin. And Jestro didn't want to believe him as he glanced back at her.

"Is he right, Angel?" Jestro questioned with doubt.

"Yes—yes he is."

"What?"

"When was the last time you ever saw a monster in the city, Jestro?" Angel questioned angrily.

"Uh, well…never."

"Exactly. People may have thought that those dangerous creatures have disappeared, but oh, they are very wrong. They're always waiting out there in the land, waiting to strike, and just who do you think stands against them? It's tiring when you have an entire kingdom depending on you to protect them Jestro. So maybe this dark side is the only thing that will get me away from it; I won't have to fight anymore monsters then," Angel sadly explained as the book was nodding and grinning at her while Jestro still couldn't believe her.

"She's with me. What about you, royal fool?" the book questioned as he glared up at Jestro.

"Well…I-I still don't know…" Jestro whimpered.

"You really wanna throw away this opportunity to end the horrible life you have now? The one where everyone laughs at you, and thinks so little of you? Huh?! Listen kid, with my help, I can make you both into a new and better somebody; I can make you both the most feared and respected people in all the realm—that's gotta be better than spinnin' plates and fighting monsters 'till your heart gives out. Right?"

The two pondered the book's offer deeply in their minds, and they shared the same thoughts when they looked at each other with confidence.

"O-ok," Jestro whimpered.

"We're listening," Angel added with a grin.

"Perfect. Now, I want you two to look around; in this library is tons of books that can help make us more and more powerful, so I need you to go and grab as many as you can. Oh, and you'll need a staff to make my pages come to life; there's hundreds of Murlock's staffs lyin' around in here!" the book informed, and the two decided that their first objective should be a staff.

The first one to spot the perfect staff was Angel.

"Hand me that staff, Jestro," Angel demanded with a grin as she pointed out the wooden staff that had a golden crest in the shape of a sun, and it was closest to Jestro.

"W-what?"

"Just do it!" Angel snapped, and so Jestro did what he was told and grabbed the staff. He then handed it to Angel as she took the book from Jestro and set it on Murlock's desk and flipped it open.

"I say we try out a spell, just a little one…ah, here! Why not this one! Looks easy enough," Angel said as she flipped through the old and grimy pages, and soon stopped on a certain one not even a quarter into the book.

"Uh, I wouldn't try that spell if I were you," the book warned.

"Shut up, old book," Angel grimly protested.

"Ok, but don't say I didn't warn ya."

With that, Angel grinned even more as she began to wave the staff over the page with her selected spell, and Jestro watched with wonder as the staff's tip started to glow brightly.

Soon, the spell Angel chose came to life, and what came out of the pages was a long snake with one head on each end, and it was made of bright red lava. But suddenly, both heads of the snake hissed as they pounced at Angel and Jestro; one end took Angel's neck in its grip while the other end gripped Jestro's neck.

The long, bright red tail that each snake head shared started to disperse into a transparent strand of bright fire, as the heads spiraled around their necks and turned to stone. Before Jestro and Angel knew it, the snakes were like shackles and they couldn't pull them off, no matter how hard they pulled.

"What the heck was that?!" Angel hissed at the book.

"I told ya so. That spell was Monster Shackle Spell; meant to latch onto the first object or person it sees so that your enemies can't escape…but now you two can't escape each other. And I'm sorry to say that Murlock is the only one that could possibly break the spell," the book explained with disappointment.

"Y-you mean…we're stuck together by magic?" Jestro questioned.

"Ya hit the nail on the head, kid," the book replied grimly.

"Jestro? Jestro, are you in here?!" Clay called as he pushed the door open to look for Jestro.

"Oh boy, it's the goody-two-shoes knight. Quick! Page two o' five; wave the staff over my pages to conjure a spell and summon a monster to take care of him," the book demanded, and Angel quickly flipped him open to the suggested page and waved the staff over his pages.

"Wait a minute! Jestro? Angel? What are you doing? What's that book?!" Clay asked with fear as he started to walk faster up to them. But before he could reach them, the book's pages started to come to life as dark purple smoke started to pour from his cracks.

What came out was a ten foot tall, cycloptic monster that was made out of pure hot lava rocks. The creature pounded his massive rock fists and stomped his huge feet as he pulled himself out of the book, and he glared down at the first thing he saw: Clay.

"Looks like you two are finally good at somethin' useful; you're both good at bein' bad," the book motivated Angel and Jestro, and the two couldn't help but look at each other with victorious grins.

Meanwhile, Clay had luckily brought his sword…but the weapon was tiny compared to the monster. And the massive creature proved that to be correct when it effortlessly knocked Clay back slamming into the doors with a simple wave of his arm. And Clay was left helpless as he was very dazed after having his back slammed against the door, and he fell far back down onto the floor.

But luck was once again on Clay's side when the doors, opened, and in walked an angry Murlock.

"Oh great, now we've got that stinkin' wizard to deal with! But now's our chance; finish that old wizard!" the book growled, so Jestro thought it was his turn to try out some spells as he took the staff from Angel

Jestro waved the staff over the book's pages, and lava balls with maniacal faces and laughter came jumping out.

"Jestro! Angel! You must stop this! You shall not be—monstrous!" Murlock shouted as the monsters headed for him and Clay, but the wizard jumped in and slammed his glowing staff down onto the ground with a golden blast, and it sent the monsters back…but it didn't stop them. And even when Murlock kept using the same move and the monsters only kept coming…he figured there was only one thing left he could do to save the kingdom.

Murlock took one last sad glance at Clay before using his magic to send the young man out of his library and he locked the doors behind him.

"No! Murlock, no, don't do this!" Clay called, but Murlock only ignored him.

The said magician started to close his eyes tight and chant magic words aloud as he raised his staff and it glowed even brighter. But soon, Murlock's verbal spell ended with a loud echo as he slammed his staff down even harder.

For a moment, Murlock's spell created a bright golden light engulfing him, as the light even made everything literally stop and go quiet. But the stillness wasn't to last when it exploded, sending the book, Jestro, Angel and all of the monsters spiraling out of the kingdom the spell was so strong.

* * *

Clay lay still on the floor outside of Murlock's library as he tired with all of his might to regain consciousness and open his eyes; the young man's head was pounding.

But the first sight he was greeted by his other knight students, as they leaned over him with concern.

"What…what happened?" Clay grunted in pain as Aaron helped him up to his feet.

"Uh…that's what we wanna know," Aaron pointed out as he and the others followed a worried Clay as the brunette was pounding against the large doors to Murlock's library to get them open.

When the doors did open, they saw a horrible sight. For Murlock's entire library was demolished small fires, ashes and smoke…and the only remains of Murlock was his wizard hat as it was also mostly burst.

"Murlock…he's gone! It was Jestro and Angel; t-they had some sort of magic book, and they were making monsters to destroy us. But Murlock saved me with this huge spell and…BOOM! Now he's gone, and it's all because I'm clearly not meant to be a knight," Clay sadly explained as he played back the horrible said memories in his head and he picked up Murlock's poor hat.

"Angel? B-but…Angel is a knight! Why would she try to destroy Murlock?" Macey questioned with terror filling her mind.

"I wish I knew," Clay sighed, but then he looked up and glanced at his fellow knights firmly, "but we'd better be ready and become true knights if we're to face what's going to be out there."

* * *

Out in the forests way outside of the Kingdom of Knighton, Angel, Jestro and the Book of Monsters lay a little phased from Murlock's powerful spell in the fields.

But it was awkward for Jestro and Angel as they woke up…and Jestro found himself in an awkward position of being on top of her, and their faces were only inches apart. And when Angel finally realized their position, she woke with a gasp.

"What are you doing?" Angel asked quickly as both she and Jestro started to struggle to get away from each other, but it only made it even more impossible to get free as their limbs got tangled with each other.

"Will you two love birds get off me?!" the muffled voice of the book asked in an angry muffle, as Angel suddenly remembered that the book was being smooshed underneath her back, along with Jestro's weight too.

So Angel finally pushed Jestro off with a gentle shove of her knees and she finally sat up and picked the thick book up as it spat dirt from its fanged and mangled mouth.

"That damnable Murlock. Who does he think he is anyway? But none of that matters now. He's dead, and we're free," the book said evilly as Angel and Jestro stood back up.

"Yeah…yeah, we are free," Angel said with realization and a grin, and Jestro grinned with her.

"Yeah…we're free to be as bad as we want!" Jestro began to laugh evilly and maniacally, and even the two floppy ends of his clown hat started to curved up to a point where they looked like devil horns.

Evil was truly on the rise.

* * *

 **DUN-DUN-DUUUUUUUN!**

 **So how do you guys like my OC Angel? Do you like her, and do you like the fact that I ship her with Jestro? Be honest, but don't be a hater is all I ask.**

 **But until the next chapter, I'm TRikiD, bye-bye!**


	2. Chapter 2 - Changed In Dark Twisted Ways

**Now guys, I'm sorry I didn't notice this until now, but I have been misspelling a couple of the character's names. Macey's name is actually spelled 'Macy' in the show, and Murlock's name is actually spelled 'Merlok' in the show. So again, I'm sorry I didn't find these mistakes before.**

* * *

Chapter 2 – Changed In Dark, Twisted Ways

The knight graduates continued to skim through all of destroyed and burst books in Murlock's library…but that was still all they would find: burst books.

"I can't believe this. Jestro and Angel both betrayed us…and Murlock…did what he had to save you, Clay," Macy said with sorrow as Clay still held Merlok's hat.

"Exactly. I'm a knight, and I should have been the one doing the saving…and I don't deserve my shield," Clay sadly protested.

"But what ever the case, do you think that book, as you claim, and Angel and Jestro are still alive?" Aaron questioned.

"All I know is that Merlok sure has a lot of books. I could never read half a' one book," Axl stated as he picked up a book covered in ashes.

"And that is why I have servants read everything TO me," Lance chuckled.

But the knights weren't the only ones in the library, grieving over Merlok's death; King and Queen Halbert were grieving too.

"Oh, I'll never get over this; Merlok was my best advisor…and my best friend," King Halbert sighed.

"Yes, dear; he was a fine mage; the last of his kind, in fact," the queen reassured while placing a hand on her husband's shoulder.

But suddenly, things started to literally brighten up when the power came back up throughout the entire city.

* * *

Ava was in one of the main computer rooms, and Robin was watching her work with one of the computers to help with the power.

"How's it goin', Ava?" Robin questioned as the said brunette girl stood up to stretch.

"Good…I think. The failure caused by Jestro fried the entire system, so I still have to reroute the power and get the cavalry up and running again."

But suddenly, something odd appeared on the holographic computer monitor, and Ava didn't touch anything. The object on the screen was a blurred orange image.

"Well, you certainly did something," Robin said as he and Ava stared with wonder and confusion.

"Don't give me credit for this," Ava protested.

The flashing blur seemed to be trying to say something, but there was too much static to make out.

"What did it say? 'Jestro'?" Ava repeated what she thought she heard, and Robin shrugged.

* * *

Speaking of the royal jester, Jestro was carrying the heavy Book of Monsters on his back as he was walking so slowly, and lucky Angel was effortlessly flying a few feet above him. Right now, it was night time, the moon was out and the evil trio was even farther from the kingdom, and they were in an old and huge forest filled mostly with creepy, dead trees.

"I can't believe we got exploded across the kingdom. I mean, look at me, I'm a wreck!" Jestro complained as he looked at his once-bright and cheerful costume that was now a little torn and smudged with dirt.

"Hey, you're not the only one that was thrown halfway across the realm," Angel pointed out as she started to try and wipe off the dirt on her clothes too. Not too long after they awoke from the explosion, Angel had removed her heavy armor, but she had some comfier attire underneath.

"Whatever. How long have we been walkin'? My feet are killing me," Jestro huffed.

"It's only been ten minutes, bad boy," the book replied dryly.

"Five as the angel flies," Angel added with a grin.

"Lucky," Jestro grunted under his breath, wishing he had wings to fly too.

"Seriously, you are the most delicate baddy I have EVER met. You need to stay focused; that goes for you too, sweetheart," the book said firmly, and glared up at the angel Halfling, and she only glared back at being called such a pet name.

"Man, you are one fat book," Jestro panted, making the book gasp with offense.

"I am not fat…I'm thick-paged!" the book protested as Jestro couldn't take it anymore and just sat him down on a near-by rock, "look, open my covers and go to page three where you can call out the Book Keeper."

"I-I don't know…last time a monster was summoned, we got blown outta the kingdom, remember?"

"It's not that hard, Jestro. Just wave the staff over the book's pages so you'll BOTH be quiet," Angel demanded while rolling her eyes at the whiny boys.

"Well…if you're so confident, why don't you do it?" Jestro asked with slight anger, and he never thought he'd talk back to his crush like that. And at first, Angel didn't reply as she remained flying in the air and she turned away and crossed her arms.

"It's against my moral as an ex-knight and as part angel to create such creatures that can kill and destroy others. Remember, I'm only here mainly because we're magically chained together, and that I just want to get away from the knight life I used to live and will…hopefully never go back to. So you'll have to do the dirty work."

"Are you two done arguin' like some middle-aged, married couple? Or are ya just gonna keep gabbin'?" the book interrupted, once again surprising Jestro and Angel. But soon, Jestro reluctantly opened the big book to page three, and waved the now glowing staff over the pages.

Like last time, purple smoke spilled out from the book, and out popped a little lava rock orb.

This was definitely not as scary as last time's moster-summoning, but it was certainly surprising when the egg-like object suddenly popped open, and apparently the Book Keeper Monster was created.

The book Keeper Monster was and elf that was just about two feet shorter than Jestro, it wore only pants, its skin was dark red, it had a mangled face and mouth filled with mangled teeth, and it had stitches all around its head. The monster smiled at Jestro and Angle, but then it turned and picked up the book.

"See? Now that this little Book keeper is here to carry me, you won't have ta. Happy?"

"Definitely…but who's gonna carry me?"

"Oh, my God! Until you realize when to suck it up, I don't even wanna look at ya! Turn me around!" the book growled at the monster, and he started to turn him around…only for him to turn all the way around and he faced Jestro again.

"No, I meant halfway!" the book snapped, and so the monster turned halfway so that he couldn't see the whiney jester.

"Oh…alright, alright. I wanna be evil, so tell me what to do and what the plan is, please," Jestro sighed as he rolled his eyes.

"Good. Turn me back around." But once again, the Book Keeper turned all the way around instead if halfway.

"HALFWAY, YOU NUMSKULL!" With that, the elf turned around again, and the book could loom upon Angel and Jestro.

"Monsters can be very useful, but they ain't that bright. That's why we gotta find the other evil books that that mage-maniac Merlok blasted across the realm," the book explained dryly.

"But how are we supposed to find even a single book? They must be all over the place," Angel pointed out as she decided to stop hovering above and land while closing her wings.

"That's what I'm for. But listen, the more books we collect, the more evil we get," the book replied with an evil grin.

"That includes me too, right?" Jestro questioned.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Now, let's go; I smell somethin' real nasty," the book said while rolling his eyes, so they started their journey again.

"Actually, you do have a really bad, musty smell," Angel added.

"What'd ya expect?! I've been sittin' on a dusty shelf for over a century with no deodorant!"

* * *

News of Merlok's disappearance and possible death had already started to go live on television with Herv as the news reporter, as he stood outside the arena from earlier.

"News of Merlok's death has got people thinking it's truly the end of a by-gone generation of mages. But I'm sure I speak for everyone when I ask 'when is my refrigerator going to turn back on?!'!" Herv said as he started to get a little tense, as he remembered how impatient he was with his knocked out fridge earlier.

* * *

The knights were currently training to think, at least, Clay was; everyone else was off doing their own thing amongst the garage in the arena.

"Clay, we gotta think of something!" Macy shouted over Clay's grunts of training.

"I know. And I think better when I'm TRAINING!" Clay said as he split a thick plank of wood in half with his sword. But after that, he then noticed that Lazy Lance was just sitting on the other side of the room getting a back massage by a robot servant. So Clay threw his sword and it impaled the wall directly above the robot's head, scaring it off and stopping Lance's massage.

"Aww, you interrupted one of the most amazing massage treatments ever," Lance pouted as he sat up.

"Hey, pretty boy, you do realize that darkness may be lose, Murlock is probably dead and now's really not the time to relax when the entire kingdom depends of us now?!" Clay grunted while getting all up in Lance's face.

"I know, I know. Why do you think I'm getting a massage in the first place? This whole event has caused so much stress for me; I've got a knot in my shoulder the size of an orange," Lance protested.

"No one has the time to massage your ego, and we need to train!" Clay grunted while pulling his sword out and slicing one of the pegs of the chair Lance was sitting on, causing the narcissist to tumble and fall. But he soon stood back up and grabbed his lance, so now the two knights were fighting each other, and Macy was not amused.

"Seriously, guys? This is SO unproductive! Ugh, a little help here, Axl?" Macy called out to the said buff night as he was just finishing a chicken leg. And so Axl went up to the fighting and bickering knights and easily picked them up by the back collars of their armor.

"Guys, c'mon. You're makin' my tummy upset," Axl whined, but their bickering only kept them from hearing him; they even started to accidentally punch and kick Axl in the face when they tried to hit each other, and that really started to tick the big guy off.

* * *

Robin and Ava were working on some radar panels that were supposed to be strapped to a small group of robots.

"The radars are a check. What now?" Robin asked as he finished strapping each robot with a radar panel helmet.

"Each of these guys will cover a different section of the city to triangulate where that weird signal from earlier was coming from," Ava replied as she repeated the plan aloud and focused on the computer monitors in front of her.

So with that, they sent the robots out into the night-covered city as each other their radar panels started to light up, and they each spread out about the kingdom.

* * *

King Halbert stared sadly out at the quarter moon on his balcony, for today, he had lost three very important people in his life.

"Oh, I can't believe it. I've lost my advisor/wizard, my jester and my best knight. And my kingdom is in terror due to this blackout," King Halbert sighed as he walked back into his and his queen's huge bedroom, and luckily, his wife was there to comfort him as always.

"There is still hope, Darling."

"But Merlok and Angel…they were the best of the best. They kept the kingdom free of monsters…and I'm always used to having that old mage right by my side."

Suddenly, the king realized his wife went quiet, so he looked up to see her walking up to one of the displays that held real weapons as she picked up a mace.

"Well, if we must learn to fight now—then so be it," Queen Halbert growled, and she started to hold the mace in a threatening position when their bedroom door started to rattle. Only for it to be Macy, so the queen quickly held the weapon behind her back from her daughter.

"H-hey, Macy…what's wrong, Dear?" Macy's mother asked softly.

"It's Lance and Clay's immature bickering and fighting, I can't take it anymore! They're too distracted with each other to realize we need to DO SOMETHING!" Macy complained angrily.

"Merlok would have known what to do," the king sighed with sorrow.

"Man, these monsters and magic books are all too ominous for me," Macy sighed while holding her hand to her forehead.

* * *

As Jestro, Angel and The Book of Monsters, still being carried by the Book Keeper Elf, traveled deeper into the dead forest, the book was flinching his 'nose' all over the place…and Jestro was jumping around like an idiot and making jump-scare shouts.

"What are ya doin'? I mean, other than bein' a moron?" the book asked grimly.

"I-I'm practicing my evil intro-poses…you said practice makes perfect, anyway," Jestro replied while rubbing his shoulder sheepishly.

"He told you to practice at being bad; not to practice at being a male model," Angel softly reminded the royal jester; she was once again hovering in the air above them.

"Wait…you think I look like a male model?" Jestro questioned even more sheepishly, and his blush shown through his white face-paint. But he wasn't the only one blushing.

"I-I never said that!" Angel quickly protested while also blushing a little, but Jestro was hopeful.

"Hey guys, quit makin' goo-goo eyes at each other, will ya? I smell a book, and it's really close. That way, Book Keeper!" the book interrupted with a grin…and when he instructed the elf to go a certain way, the idiot monster only went the opposite.

"No, no, no! The OTHER way!" With that, the Book Keeper monster finally got the right direction, and sprinted off to where the book told him.

"Wow, that thing's got the sense of direction of a GPS that keeps recalculating every second," Jestro pointed out with a grin, and Angel couldn't help but laugh at that remark.

"Ok, ok. Despite your last horrible attempt of trying to make people laugh, THAT was actually pretty funny," Angel complimented with a chuckle.

* * *

Ava was still keeping track of the signals being broadcast by the other robots with the radar panel helmets, as she still sat in front of the computer and had never left it. And Robin had left the garage a while ago to make sure the robots' signals were clear, so he contacted Ava on the high-tech radio.

"The last squad has been set up around the city, Ava!"

"Thank you, Robin!"

But just as the two freshmen knights had finished their small conversation, Macy had walked in when she heard 'squad' and 'around the city'.

"A squad? What kind of squad? What are you kids doing?"

"We're trying to set up an electro-field that'll help us track down the source of this weird message we've been getting, but we have never been able to make out who it is or what it's trying to tell us."

And just to prove Ava right, the message started sounding and coming up as the same orange and blurry image. And this time, all they could make out was 'castle', 'Jestro' and 'attack'.

"Who is it?" Macy questioned.

"Does it look like we know?" Ava asked dryly, but that was also when the blur suddenly vanished with a hiss, "aaaand it's gone, but I can still get a fix on the wifi source."

"What is going on?" Macy asked herself with worry.

Meanwhile, the other knights were still just hanging out in their own ways.

Aaron was having a blast while flying around the huge place on his crest shield as a hover board; he even grinded on some edges like it were a skate board.

"This still makes a much better hover board than anything else I've ridden!" Aaron said happily as he stopped to rest next to Axl, who was literally using his shield as a plate topped with ham sandwiches.

"Mine works best as a plate," Axl added with a grin as he took a bite of half of a sandwich.

"Well, that's good. 'Cause I'd say you're clearly undernourished," Aaron sarcastically chuckled, but then Axl belched in his face.

But as those two were seeing eye to eye, Lance and Clay weren't doing so hot. For they were still fighting and bickering…but they're been fighting for so long now, that they been getting more and more tired, and their attempts to hit each other got lazier.

"Respect…the Knight's…Code…pretty boy…" Clay huffed.

"Respect…my…naptime…" Lance tiredly protested.

"You take nothing…seriously…"

"And you're…way too bossy…"

And while the boys were being…well, boys(not trying to be sexist here),Macy walked in and stared at them with disappointment.

"This is not good," Macy sighed while shaking her head.

* * *

Morning had finally come again over the realm, and that included the ever-denser growing forest that Angel, Jestro and the Book of Monsters, carried by his elf Book Keeper, were all still traveling through as the book continued to use his 'nose' to find that book.

And as per usual, Jestro was making paranoid noises as he started to get paranoid as to what could be out here. And he was especially scared when he jumped back a few feet and screamed in terror when…a little fluffy, white bunny came hopping out from the bushes and in front of him.

"Stay calm; it can probably smell fear," Angel said sarcastically as she descended next to Jestro.

"I-I wasn't scared…I was just startled…but it is cute. Hey, little guy," Jestro said as he then started to lean down to pet the rabbit's head, but before he could lay a hand on it, the rabbit's eyes become huge and yellow with red pupils, and its moth became monstrous and full of fangs as it also let out a loud growl.

Jestro was once again jumping back in fear, but before he knew it, the rabbit calmed down a little as he hopped up into Angel's arms, but it didn't hurt her as it continued to quiver.

"Aw, you scared it," Angel said sadly as she started to pet the creature, thus calming it down faster.

"I SCARED IT?!"

"And why do you two think that rabbit's so scary lookin' anyway? Look over there! It's the first book on our list: The Book of Evil," The Book of Monsters interrupted as the rabbit was let go, and he referred to a book sitting leant up against a small rock about a yard or two away.

This book was glowing with a dark purple aura, as it buzzed with an odd sort of sound. So they walked up to the book to get a closer look, and Jestro was the first to pick it up.

"Huh…ya know, it doesn't look so bad." But Jestro spoke too soon when a black colored, gelatinous ooze started to seep out from within the book, and it crawled up onto Jestro's hands and up his arms.

This ooze was different, as it changed Jestro in different way. As the ooze grew bigger and started to quickly cover an engulf Jestro, his appearance and the way he thought both changed. His bright blue and purple costume turned to dark purple and blood red; his one pretty purple cape was now colored like rust-colored blood as it was also ripped and had a few tears and holes in it; once again, the two floppy ends on his hat curled up into shapes that looked like devil horns, and the most scary new feature was his face. His mouth became longer and twisted as some of his teeth became mangled, and the whiteness in his eyes turned a sickening yellow, along with his once-sparkling blue eyes had turned blood red. And not only that, but Jestro could feel both his mind and his heart twisting in very dark and evil ways.

While The Book of Monsters was very pleased by Jestro's change, Angel was actually quite surprised that…the man that she had felt sorry for not so long ago was capable of showing such a dark side of himself…so almost didn't even want to look at him like this; especially not his creepy face. But she kept those thoughts hidden.

"Yes, yes, you look excellent! Now quick, feed me that book!" the book demanded the evil jester with a huge grin, and so Jestro chuckled darkly as he chucked it into the book's mouth. But before the book could literally eat the other one, Angel snatched out of the air and glared at the book.

"Wait a minute. I'm starting to have second thoughts on this now," Angel protested as she stared down at The Book of Evil, but like Jestro, when she came in contact with it, the same ooze started to cover her and travel up her arms.

"There's nothin' you can do about it, angel cakes. Once you head down the path of evil, there's no turnin' back. So the only thing you can do now is let it take you and corrupt you," The Book of Monsters said with darkly with a smile as she was also starting to change, despite her angel wings. But it was because of her wings that made her transformation a little bit different from Jestro's.

Angel didn't know what to expect, so she shut her eyes tight for the unexpected. When the ooze had finished engulfing her and had disappeared into her, there were definitely a few slight changes about her. Her once bright brown hair was not only darker, but it was also streaked with long and bright red streaks; she soon opened her eyes, and her eyes had also changed, though not like Jestro's with the yellowness, but her once beautiful brown eyes were now a blood red. But the biggest and most noticeable change was her wings.

The outer feathers on the tips of her wings were all no longer glowing a bright gold, but were now colored with rusty colors, just like blood. But the rest of her wings remained the same, glowing golden.

"I…I don't feel that evil…but here, I guess you should just take the book," Angel sighed as she looked at her red streaked hair and the red tips of her wings as she gently slipped the Book of Evil into the mouth of the Book of Monsters.

And once the book had swallowed it, he burped out a cloud of purple smoke as he also flicked out a large, snake-like tongue that wasn't there before.

"Oh-ho-ho, yeah! Let's get this thing started!" The Book Of Monsters said as he started to laugh manically, and Jestro joined him, with or without Angel.

* * *

The people in the Kingdom of Knighton were starting to brighten up when the sun came out again to start the new day. But the new day wasn't the knights' biggest concern right now, as Robin was trying to radio Ava with a walkie-talkie as he the freshman waited on a taller point with one of the robots on the king's castle.

"Figured out the message's location yet, Ava?"

"Its location…oh, that's weird! It's pin-pointed…inside the castle!"

This was definitely some progress.

* * *

Jestro was very happy with his and Angel's changes, and then he also had a devious idea.

"I know…we should make MORE monsters!"

"NO!"

Suddenly, the staff was snatched from Jestro's hands when Angel came darting threw and she flew up and landed high up in a tree on a strong limb. And due to the greater distance between them, Jestro and Angel's snake-like shackles for necklaces started to reappear and glow brighter than before.

"I really don't like this, and I'm not letting you go too far with this, Jestro…I can't even look at your face, your new evil appearance is so scary! And until you realize that listening to this stupid book was wrong, then I'm not coming down and we aren't going anywhere!"

"What?! But Angel, we've already come this far! What's the point in stopping now…a-and why can't you look at me anymore?!" Jestro called up in both anger and fear.

"Because that's not you, Jestro! You're not the person I…well, that's not really important right now! And I may not want my job as a NEXO Knight back, but I don't want to hurt innocent people either!"

Jestro wanted to regret listening to The Book of Monsters like Angel said because his heart still belonged to her, but his twisted mind was trying to tell him otherwise.

"Don't listen to her, clown boy! Just smooth-talk your girlfriend back down here, so that we can make some magic!" the book growled, but he also said the magic word for Angel.

The said ex-knight leaped down and landed with a thud while remaining unscathed from dropping from that height.

"Listen here, you old, leather-faced book! I am NO ONE'S girl! Alright?! So get it through your thick spine before I tear it into two!" as Angel continued to rage, Jestro and the book noticed that her red eyes and the red streaks started to glow brighter, and even the remaining golden parts of her wings started to darken like the tips.

And this gave The Book of Monsters the theory of what is now Angel's switch, so he grinned even more as he flicked his snake tongue.

"Are ya sure? Because I swore I sensed some chemistry between you two when you were both squishin' me. Oh, and don't forget the time when you were lookin' into each others' eyes." As the book continued to go one with that huge grin, Angel only got angrier as her eyes and red hair streaks both started to glow even brighter, and the entirety of her wings turned completely dark red.

Now her evil side was showing.

"I'LL SHOW YOU!" Angel boomed as she grinded her teeth and threw the front cover of the book open and landed on the first random page she found. So she began to wave the staff over whatever monsters were on that page, and no had she did that monsters started jumping out of the pages.

There were monsters that were little lava spears with faces; there were elves that looked a lot like the Book Keeper, and there were also two much bigger lava monsters; one was a Cyclops with a but more armor, and the second had a much more intimidating face with his mangled teeth always showing, his eyes were glowing bright yellow, and he had the huge, back-curved horns of a goat that were made of stone.

But after all of the lava creatures were summoned, Angel suddenly shook her head and became a little woozy as the red streaks in her hair and her red eyes stopped glowing, and the majority of her angel wings became golden again as the tips still remained dark red.

"Ugh…what happened…and where did all of these things come from?" Angel asked groggily as she nearly fainted, but Jestro caught her and gladly took the staff from her, just to be cautious.

"Sparkks and Rangee, at your service!" the two larger monster saluted.

"U-uh, well…you sorta went on a raging, monster-summoning spree when the book used the word-," Jestro began to reply, only for the Book of Monsters to rudely interrupt him.

"Da-da-da-da-da-da-da! Maybe not say THAT word in front of her unless need be, eh joke boy? But now that we have all these monsters with us, we can go and 'take care' of those jerks back at the kingdom!"

"Right! So let's move, my monsters!" Jestro demanded with a grin, but then he remembered helplessly drained Angel when she used him to stop herself from falling over again, so he trailed a bit behind the monsters for her to lean on.

"Seriously…w-what did I actually do?" Angel questioned, as she was still very confused when she remembered blacking out.

* * *

The knights still hadn't decided what to actually do, as they had no idea that Jestro and Angel's monster were heading right for the kingdom as they speak. But Macy watched with paranoia as Clay was once again the only one working out as he was lifting a metal bar with a robot at each end for dumb-bells.

"I couldn't agree with you more, Macy; we need to be training so that we can be ready for whatever challenge sooner than later," Clay grunted as he continued working on his upper-body strength.

"I don't know what the hell that weird signal on Ava's computer was; maybe it was like a message…or worse, a warning," Macey added.

"Will you two stop worrying so much? Why, I'm so relaxed, I'm easily beating Axl at this video game," Lance cut in with a grin, as he was true to his word when he said he and Axl were kicking back in bean-bags and playing co-op on Medieval Grand Theft Auto V.

But when Lance turned back around to keep playing, he suddenly noticed that Axl stole the better car from him and drove off without him.

"Hey! How'd you do that?!" Lance asked angrily as he had to pick the sucky bicycle.

"I got fast thumbs," Axl replied with a grin.

"We need to be more organized than-WHOOOOAAAA!" But while Macy was trying to protest again, Aaron suddenly came flying through as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her onto his shield next to him.

"Face it, Macy! We've tried all day to get anyone organized, so maybe you should let them chill!" Aaron pointed out with a smirk, but Macy wasn't happy as she angrily grabbed his shoulders.

"'Chill'? Just 'chill', Aaron?! You do realize the kingdom needs us; my father needs us!" But right when Macy tried to make another point, she was only interrupted again when they weren't watching where they were flying, and they crashed into a giant piles of boxes that held equipment.

"I just…I just want to prove to my dad that I can be a knight," Macy sighed as she tossed an empty box off of her head.

"I get it, Macy. But you will get your chance, I'm sure of it," Aaron reassured as he also tossed an empty box off of him.

"Yeah, but I wanna know when!"

But before anyone knew it, an alarm started blaring and a red warning light started flashing.

"I'd say sooner than you think," Aaron added.

* * *

The front gates of the kingdom were shut tightly, and there were archer robot guards, but they were on lockdown because Jestro, Angel, The Book of Monsters and their lava monsters had finally arrived at the front gates.

But as they were traveling across the bridge over the moat, Jestro suddenly felt that same pulling sensation around his neck when his and Angel's necklace shackles were activated, and that's just what it was.

Jestro turned around to find Angel a few yards back and flying a few feet in the air.

"You fight the battles; I stay out!" Angel reminded them of her pacifist promise, despite the fact that Jestro had already told her that SHE was the one who summoned the monsters in the first place.

"S-she's n-not gonna fight? Oh…I'm feelin' queasy, all of the sudden," Jestro whimpered as the flaps on his clown hat went limp with fear.

"Well, don't throw up on me. Remember, this is a perfect chance to get revenge on all of those people who laughed at you, and that thought so little of you!" the book growled, and that was when the laughter of those cruel people started to echo in Jestro's head; he was in a total flashback.

"No…no…no, stop laughing at me!" Jestro monologued to himself as he shut his eyes tight and started to grind his teeth, but it wasn't long before he realized he MUST get his revenge, so he opened his eyes again and he grinned evilly.

"Let's do this!" Jestro cried with confidence…and this worried Angel.

"Rangee, Sparkks, fling 'em!" Jestro scolded his largest pair of lava monsters.

"Sir, yes, Sir!" So with that, Rangee and Sparkks started picking up the spherical lava monsters, and they effortlessly started chucking half of them over the kingdom walls.

Some of them even flew far enough to reach the king and queen's castle, where the king and queen themselves were hiding, but they weren't alone as a pair of robot guards readied their swords.

"Protect the king! Protect the queen!" the robots cried as they stood guard in front of the royals as the monsters started flying in, but they easily powered through them and bounced up to King and Queen Halbert.

Meanwhile, robot guards started to pour out from front gates of the kingdom, armored with swords and spears to fight the monsters…only to easily power through them as well.

But when luck seemed to run out, the knights appeared, and they had their power weapons and family crest shields at the ready.

"Alright, Knights! It's time that we prove ourselves worthy of these shields! ATTACK!" Clay shouted firmly, and so he and his knights went to attack the monsters before them.

But it didn't matter what the knights did to attack and take them down; none of the monsters were ever phased. and what really surprised them was that neither Jestro nor Angel was helping them…especially Angel.

"Angel? Angel, help us!" Clay called out to the angel Halfling, but she reluctantly ignored their calls for help as she followed Jestro and the book further across the bridge.

"The knights…they need help!" Jestro pointed out with worry; once again, the floppy ends of his hat went limp.

"They're nothin'!" the book snapped.

"But they never did anything bad to us!" Angel called down.

"Really? They never helped ya fight your battles, so that you could have a break, sweetie! And you, joke-boy! It doesn't matter if you claim that that Clay-kid was always there for ya; he still let people put you down!" the book scolded…but as much as Jestro and Angel didn't want to believe him, he was right.

* * *

Ava and Robin had followed one of the robots, that were strapped with one of Ava's radar panels, into Merlok's destroyed library with wonder.

"Well, this is where the signal of that message is coming from, apparently," Ava said with confusion as she and Robin examined the burnt surroundings of the place.

"Really? This place? It looks like everything here was demolished into a bunch of little hamburgers," Robin pointed out.

Soon, Ava explored a little but more as she rounded the edge of Merlok's desk and activated the holographic computer in it to do some more research.

* * *

You would expect King Halbert to be the brave one to fight off the monsters when options were dwindling…but it was actually the queen that was the tough one as she effortlessly fought off each of the spherical monsters out of the castle, no thanks to the king.

But to knock the last monster out, the queen ended up using one of the robot guards as a bat; thus making the robot dizzy from the impact.

"Pleased to serve, My Liege," the poor robot sighed with dizziness as he fainted.

* * *

The knights were still trying their best to take down the monsters, but still to no avail.

"Just keep fighting!" Clay shouted over the clashing of his sword on the monsters' tough exterior.

"But how?! Our weapons do nothing with them!" Lance called with worry.

"And you have the best weapons money can buy!" Macy pointed out.

"I know, right?!"

Meanwhile, poor Axl was being buried under most of the lava balls, and despite his bull-like strength, he couldn't lift them off.

"I've decided I hate monsters!" Axl growled.

"I think they hate you too, big guy!" Aaron added as he shot laser arrows from his cross-bow.

And the entire time, while Angel watched with regret, Jestro and The Book of Monsters watched with glee.

"See? I told ya they'd never be a match for your guys' monsters," the book pointed out with a grin.

"Yeah…I found somethin' I'm good at, and I'm good at bein' bad," Jestro added with an even bigger grin as the evil within him started to make the yellow in his eyes glow. But Angel ruined his moment when she suddenly landed next to him and whacked him upside the head with one of her wings to bring him out of his trance.

"Hey, don't go crazy on me!" Angel snapped as she aggressively poked her finger on Jestro's chest and got up in his face to emphasize her point, in which he rapidly nodded.

* * *

Ava was still trying to skim through the computer on Merlok's desk, as Robin watched in wonder over her shoulder. But soon, even though Ava didn't really do anything, the blue hologram buzzed and turned golden.

"Ooh, it's a power surge!" Robin said with a smile, but the 'power surge' then started to make the hologram glow even brighter to the point where the freshmen knights had to cover their eyes.

"What the heck is happening?!" Ava cried, but her question was short-lived when the glowing stopped, and a hologram of Merlok the wizard appeared.

"Merlok?" Ava asked with happiness.

"No, he's not 'Merlok' anymore; now he's Merlok 2.0!" Robin added with a chuckled.

"2.0? Really? Dude, this is a computer system from, like, twenty years ago…though, it is slightly better than Merlok Beta," Ava grimly pointed out.

"What?! No! you kids need to understand that I'm here to help you!" Merlok 2.0 cut in.

"I know, but just look at you! You're like some digi-wizard now!" Robin happily pointed out.

"We'll work on the naming after we've fought these monsters," Ava said with a grin as she grabbed her holographic tablet.

"Yes, so get ready to listen, kids!" Merlok laughed.

* * *

"Clay, it's Ava!" Ava was now trying to talk to Clay through the radio system in his helmet, but he was currently trying to fight back Sparkks.

"I'm a little busy here, Ava!"

"Clay, you need to listen to me! Now, stop fighting and aim your shield at the heavens above!"

"What?!"

"Just point your shield up!" Ava snapped, so Clay confusedly lifted his shield up, and the result was amazing to see.

A golden orb had blasted out of Clay's shield, but then it turned into a giant, transparent, golden dragon.

"NEXO Knight Power: Dragon of Justice!" Merlok's voice echoed from the dragon image in the sky, as the dragon then went back down and into Clay's shield, and miraculous changes started to happen to Clay.

The blue coloration, long with Clay's shield, started to turn into gold and started to glow brightly the eagle symbol on his armor and shield became a golden dragon, and even his sword was aligned with golden designs.

"It's Merlok! You all need to raise your shields!" Clay called back with confidence and joy, as he was also suddenly able to finally take a monster out when he slashed it with his sword, and the monster turned into dark purple dust that faded away.

So the other knights did as their unofficial leader told them, and soon, the same changes that happened to Clay happened to their weapons, armor and shields.

Now the odds were even.

Each monster they, sliced, smashed, impaled or pierced all turned to dust.

"W-what's goin' on…why are the monsters failing?" Jestro whimpered.

"Look, I ain't The Book a' Answers, but I bet this has to do with that Merlok."

It suddenly struck more fear into Jestro, Angel and the book's hearts when the knights were even able to take out their biggest monsters Rangee and Sparkks.

"Here's another important lesson for you two to remember: He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day," the book pointed out.

"I think I like that lesson; let's go!" Angel joked as she suddenly grabbed Jestro's free-hand, that wasn't carrying their magic staff, and easily flew off with him in retreat.

But when the Book Keeper monster retreated…he retreated the wrong way; towards the knights.

"NO! RETREAT THE OTHER WAY! THE OTHER WAAAAY!" The Book of Monsters called with fear, and the stupid monster soon turned around and sprinted after Angel and Jestro with his short legs.

But as they fled, the NEXO Knights watched them with victory.

They were truly the NEXO Knights that could take on anything.

* * *

That afternoon, Jestro, Angel and the book were each traveling through the forests way out there with their heads sulking in defeat.

"What was that?" Angel asked angrily.

"What was what?" Jestro questioned with confusion.

"You and your fear! You boys just sat there and did nothing!"

"Well, what about you?! You're a pacifist who's stuck in this evil group!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Look, love birds, no one's completely successful at everything at first. But just stick with me, kids; I can make you the most feared and known people in all the realm," the book cut in, and just the thought of turning the two goody-two shoes stuck together made him grin evilly as he also flicked his snake-like tongue.

* * *

The knights were called into Merlok's library by Ava, and the sight of Merlok amazed them all.

"It's really great to see you again, Merlok," Clay said with a smile.

"Actually, you can call me 'Merlok 2.0'."

"He's now a holographic computer projection system from about two decades ago. He was imprisoned in the computer systems by his magical blast," Ava pointed out.

"It doesn't feel like an imprisonment, so don't worry about me. But you must all prepare, for I fear that Jestro and Angel will be growing stronger as we speak with The Book of Monsters, and you can't be unsuitable to fight them when that time comes," Murlock added with worry.

"But where do those creatures even come from?" Clay questioned.

"Oh, well, that's…quite the long and boring story," Merlok replied, but that was when the doors to his destroyed library opened up, and in walked King and Queen Halbert.

"Oh, Merlok, it is so good to know that you are still here with us," King Halbert sighed happily.

"In what ever form," the queen added softly with a smile.

"He's the wizard of the O.S.: Operating System," Lance joked, making Ava sigh and face-palm.

"And look; he's got a game system too!" Aaron happily pointed out as he was playing Medieval Grand Theft Auto V with Axl again on Merlok's computer system, with him still in it!

"Wait! Stop! You're over-loading him!" Ava shouted, but it was too late.

"I can only supply power for so lo-!" Merlok tried to warn, but the electricity had already went out, and the whole room went dark.

"Oh no! Darkness reigns again!" the king cried with fear.

"Dad. Calm down. Someone get a flashlight!" Macy said with disappointment because of her scaredy-cat father.

* * *

 **What do you guys think Angel was going to say when she was in the tree when she said "You're not the person I...well, that's not important right now"?**

 **But anyway, do you guys also think that Angel and Jestro's relationship will progress in good or bad ways?**

 **Until the next chapter, I'm TRikiD, bye-bye!**


End file.
